Now Google Maps offers weather forecast

The new Google Maps service displays information about temperatures and local weather conditions around the globe.

Google brings weather to Maps
The new feature displays the current weather for each spot, as well as a four-day forecast, a move that may make it easier for people to travel and plan activity accordingly.

"Whether you're organizing a trip overseas or a picnic at a local park, knowing the weather forecast is a crucial part of the planning process," Google user experience designer Jonah Jones wrote in a blog post. "Today we're adding a weather layer on Google Maps that displays current temps and conditions around the globe, and will hopefully make travel and activity planning easier."

Users can change the units for measurement of wind speed and temperature, meaning units of wind speed can be changed from miles per hour to kilometers per hour, and temperature can be shown in Farenheit or Celcius.

For the weather layer service, Google has entered deals with the Weather Channel's weather.com and the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory.

The new feature can be accessed through the widget in the right hand corner of the screen that lists the various options for the map, including Traffic, Transit, Photos, Terrain, Webcams, Wikipedia, Videos, Bicycling, Buzz, and Labels.

How it works?
To know the weather condition of a particular city, users need to click on the weather icon after which a window will open displaying data like current humidity and wind conditions, as well as a forecast for the next four days, says Jones.

"When zoomed out, you'll see a map with current weather conditions from weather.com for various locations, with icons to denote sun, clouds, rain and so on," he explains. "You can also see cloud coverage, thanks to our partners at the U.S. Naval Research Lab. And, if you look closely, you can also tell if it's day or night around the world by sun and moon icons."

Units for measurement can be changed
Users can change the units for measurement of wind speed and temperature, meaning units of wind speed can be changed from miles per hour to kilometers per hour, and temperature can be shown in Farenheit or Celcius.

Users can also enable or disable the viewing of clouds when they zoomed out from the map.

Launched in 2005, Google Maps already offers information on topography and current traffic conditions for a number of locations. It also comes embedded with features like Flu Shot Finder, Biking directions and Monopoly City Streets.